Assessment of academic stress and its correlation with self-efficacy and coping style among undergraduate medical students

Abstract

Background: Academic stress is one of the important issues associated with education, especially medical education due to the demanding curriculum. Coping mechanisms and student's self-belief that they can cope with academic pressures help in managing stress, but the effectiveness of such methods is unclear. The present study attempted to understand the correlation of academic stress, coping mechanism, and student self-efficacy. Subjects and Methods: This is a cross-sectional study, in which universal sampling was done among 2nd- and 3rd-year undergraduate medical students, among them 246 students consented to participate in the study. Out of which, 57.7% were 2nd-year students and 42.3% were 3rd-year students. The Academic Stress Inventory, Brief COPE, and Self-Efficacy Scales were used to collect data which were analyzed statistically. Results: The mean age of the students was 20.03 ± 1.01 years, among which 59.8% were females and 40.2% were males. The most common source of academic stress was stress from teachers, as reported by male (28.8 ± 6.35) and female students (28.8 ± 5.64). Students tried to manage stress by planning their activities in advance, and female students (5.59 ± 1.38) practiced this more frequently than males (5.22 ± 1.58) and this was statistically significant (P